Aquafil and Genomatica come together to develop sustainable caprolactam for bio-nylon products
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
Caprolactam is an organic compound whose global
market is approximately 5 million tons per year. The vast majority is used to
make nylon-based products including carpets and apparel. It is traditionally
synthetized from oil-derived cyclohexanone. The Italian Aquafil is a leading player in that nylon
industry with presence in eight countries on three continents, employing more
than 2,700 staff at 15 plants. One of its strategic priorities is to grow and
produce in full respect of the environment. In this sense, the company launched
the ECONYL® Regeneration System in 2011 to produce nylon made from regenerated
waste. Now, it goes one step further by involving in the development of sustainable
nylon with a strong partner in the biotechnology field.
Aquafil and Genomatica
have just announced a multiyear agreement to create sustainable caprolactam
(see press release, 23/01/2018). The collaboration
aims to develop a commercially-advantageous bioprocess to make caprolactam
using plant-based ingredients: Genomatica’s GENO CPL™. The process will provide
an environmentally-friendly way to make caprolactam with better economics,
including for smaller-scale plants. The performance of the nylon end products
will be fully comparable to those made from crude oil-derived caprolactam and
will not require any machine or process adjustments by the nylon supply chain.
Figure 1. Value chain of the bio-nylon process
(extracted from the press release)
Genomatica invites other leaders in the value
chain to join its bio-nylon program and Aquafil encourages further
collaboration with supply chain partners. By joining the program, companies
ranging from chemical producers and product makers to agriculture companies and
major brands can influence priorities and gain access to Genomatica’s
technologies and supply of bio-based chemicals.
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